Burns
Storm felt the metal collar biting into her neck, the collar that had stolen her powers, and once again struggled against the restraints binding her to the metal chair.
"That won't do ya' no good, ya' know." Her captor's grating, pained voice made her wince, "Ya' ain't goin' no where, 'cept maybe 'ell."
The small green mutant approached her, his scarred face twisted in a cruel sneer.
Storm tried to steady her voice, "You won't get away with this, Toad. Even if you can block out Cerebro, you can't stop Wolverine from tracking us here. If you let me go, they might just let you live."
Toad laughed, a harsh, strained sound. "Let 'em kill me. Better than dyin' slow like this... It don' matter no more. Not after you..." His right arm began to shake uncontrollably, he grabbed his right wrist with his left hand to steady it.
"Remember what ya' said, back at Liberty Island? "What 'appens to a Toad that gets struck by lightnin'?" Well I'll tell ya. Massive neurological damage, fer one. I can barely 'old a wrench anymore." His arm finally stopped shaking, and he sighed softly, "Severe electrical burns, fer another." He pointed at his face with a shaky hand, moving closer so that Storm could see the terrible scars on his face, the madness in his eyes, "An' it's not just my face, I got burns all down my tongue...My throat..."
Storm's eyes narrowed, "You were trying to kill me, and if you and that lunatic Magneto had had your way, all of New York City would be dead!"
"We didn't know that! An' I wasn' trying to kill ya!" He coughed and shuddered, clearly in great pain, "I was just trying to 'old on to that bloody railing! You didn't 'ave to fry me! You didn't 'ave to ruin my life! You say yer 'eroes, but does a 'ero try to kill a guy when 'e can't even defend 'imself?" His voice was becoming strained with the effort of speaking with his scarred throat, his scarred tongue.
Storm didn't answer, she knew any response would only anger Toad further. He slapped her across the face, hard. "Does a 'ero make jokes about killin' someone? At least I'll admit I'm a 'eartless bastard. I've killed people before, fer my cause. I don't pretend to be some kinda' good, law-abid..." His voice seemed to grind and break, and he rubbed at his throat in frustration.
Storm took the offensive, "What do you want me to say? That I'm sorry? That I was wrong? I was wrong to joke about it, but I had to stop you some way, if you'd gotten back up, you'd have done everything in your power to kill me!"
''Ow could I get back up, 'angin' like I was?"
The voice was barely a whisper now, and Storm could see he was too far gone to listen to reason. She silently prayed Logan would arrive in time, not just to save her, but to put this pathetic, suffering creature out of his misery.
Toad turned to the large box fastened to the wall, and reached for a thick red lever. A massive tremor ran down his right side, so he used his left hand.
"Toad... Mortimer... Please, don't do this. For both our sakes. We have doctors who can help you."
Mortimer Toynbee turned, pain, madness and a hint of sadness in his eyes, "It's too late for that, luv'. I never 'ad much of a life, always bein' kicked around, beaten, even my own parents left me to die when I was born. But it was my life, an' I was finally gettin' to be someone, I was gonna' 'elp Magneto, we were gonna' save the mutant race. We were gonna' be 'eroes... But ya' took it all away. I can't even use my tongue anymore. I'm already dead, an' now, so are you."
He closed his eyes, and pulled the red lever.
...
Three minutes later, Wolverine burst into the old warehouse, followed by Cyclops and Jean Grey.
"Oh, God..." Jean put a hand over her mouth.
Mortimer Toynbee lay crumpled in a heap near the far wall, a gun in his hand and his life's blood splattered on the wall. But they were transfixed by the sight of Storm, her corpse still strapped into a make-shift electric chair, her face contorted in pain...
Both sights would haunt them for the rest of their lives.
The End.
All characters copyright Marvel Comics
I wanted to do an angst!Toad revenge story, to offset my other, lighter story. Just to be clear, this is not the same AU from 'The Toad Always Bounces Back'.
The Toad/Storm scene on Liberty Island made me hate the X-Men movie. It wasn't that great a movie, the actors were all top-notch but the script and directing was awful. The scene where Storm taunts Toad before electrocuting him was just disgusting. It ruined the whole movie for me. In the comics, Storm has a great respect for life, all life, and would never have done something so sadistic. This isn't an attack on Storm fans, this is an attack on the writer and director who created that travesty.
When the heroes are cold-blooded killers, are they really the heroes? Or are they just the Lesser Evil? Maybe they're the Greater Evil, claiming to be the forces of good, while killing others without mercy or remorse. I'll leave that to the reader to decide.